Optical disc drives and disc loading mechanism are generally well known to those skilled in the art. There are two major movements during the loading of an optical disc disc into an optical disc drive. The first is the sliding movement of the loader tray into the drive. The second is the movement by which the optical reader is placed in position to read the disc. The second movement is often accomplished by pivoting up the tray which supports the optical reader from an lowered position to a raised position. Because these two movements are comparably different, and must occur at different, but at a selected pre-determined times, the loading mechanism must be able to both reliably facilitate the movement and the timing of the loading process.
In the recent years, many improvements have been made to the loading mechanism to make the optical disc drive system more stable, reliable, less complex, cheaper, etc. Some of these improvements are detailed in, among others, U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,393 and 5,416,763. Despite the many improvements, the loading mechanism of the most current optical disc drives still employ many similar components such as circular gears and belts for facilitating the loading process and for synchronizing the movements of the various parts.
Many of these current mechanisms can include relatively large number of components, some of which require some skill and labor to put together. Yet some of these parts and processes can be eliminated, reduced, or combined to provide a more efficient loading mechanism. In the optical disc drive manufacturing industry where the drives are produced in high quantities, it is highly desirable to have a mechanism which uses the least number of components possible, and which is adapted for easy assembly. In light of the continual evolution of the loading mechanism for optical disc drives, it would be desirable to have a loading mechanism which further reduces the complexity, which is versatile, and which is highly adaptable for high-volume manufacturing.